Bruins Score 4 Unanswered, Beat Kings for Fifth Straight Win

The Boston Bruins swept the California slate.

The Bruins (7-2-0) made it five in a row on Saturday night with a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings (0-4-2) at Crypto.com Arena. David Pastrnak (4), Marat Khusnutdinov (2), Elias Lindholm (3), and JJ Peterka (3) each scored a goal in the win, and all four came unanswered for the second straight night.

Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves on 26 shots in his sixth win of the season.

The Bruins were without Pavel Zacha, who is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Sean Kuraly drew back into the lineup, and Fraser Minten and Matt Poitras centered the first and second lines, respectively. Nikita Zadorov was a healthy scratch, and Jonathan Aspirot drew into the lineup.

The Kings wasted no time getting the scoring started on Saturday night. Adrian Kempe set up Alex Laferriere right outside of Swayman’s crease, and Laferriere scored on the game’s first shot only 31 seconds into action. 

The Bruins were slow out of the gate again on Saturday night, and at the 10:30 mark of the opening frame, they were down 9-3 in shots on goal. The Kings took a 12-6 advantage in shots into the first intermission. 

In the last minute of the first period, Mark Kastelic and Samuel Helenius dropped the gloves for a quick bout. Kastelic, in his second fight of the 2026-27 season, got the takedown on the 6-foot-6 Kings forward. 

The captain got the Bruins on the board to start the second period. David Pastrnak pounced on a puck that bounced over Erik Gustafsson’s stick. He sped past Gustafsson and beat Anton Forsberg with a wrist shot blocker-side to tie the game at 2:43.  

With the goal, Pastrnak extended his point streak to four games (4-4–8), and he is now three goals behind Patrice Bergeron for third place in franchise history.

Marat Khusnutdinov drew an interference call on Brandt Clarke four minutes after Pastrnak’s goal, giving the Bruins their second power-play opportunity of the night. Khusnutdinov appeared shaken up after the play but returned to the ice four minutes later. He played just three shifts during the middle frame. 

The Bruins woke up during the middle frame. They outshot Los Angeles 12-7, killed off their only penalty, and skated into the last 20 minutes tied. 

To start the third period, Marco Sturm moved JJ Peterka to the first line alongside Minten and Pastrnak. Morgan Geekie dropped to the right of Poitras and Khusnutdinov.

The new-look second line struck at the 13:36 mark. Geekie fired a shot at Forsberg, who made the save but did not cover the puck. Matt Poitras dug and poked it through the crease to Khusnutdinov, and the 24-year-old potted his second goal of the season to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

The Bruins and Kings each had a man in the box after matching minor penalties to Will Borgen (interference) and Joel Armia (embellishment). The Kings pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker, and Elias Lindholm scored an empty-netter from the neutral zone with 1:58 on the clock.

The Bruins were not done there. JJ Peterka scored an empty-net goal with 18 seconds on the clock to put the game to rest.

The Bruins will close out their four-game road trip in Dallas on Tuesday. They will fly to Texas after this game and have the day off on Sunday. 

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